"The Asian hornet can be identified by a single yellow band on its dark body and brown eyes on its yellow-orange face."
And the fact that it's 2 inches bloody long. Jesus.
A sleepy Cotswold town could be about to witness the genocide of local honey bees following the discovery of invasive predatory Asian hornets. Sightings of the inch-long death bringers have been confirmed in the Tetbury area in Gloucestershire for the first time. Although it has a long, powerful stinger, it's the hornet's …
No, there's been a bit of confusion in the press generally about this. The ones found in Tetbury are Asian Hornets, but not Asian Giant Hornets, which are a different species (and bigger, obvs - they're the ones that can grow up to two inches long). The Asian Hornets have been introduced and are fairly widespread across continental Europe, although they don't like cold winters so are more common in the south. They are actually slightly smaller than the native British Hornet, but they do have a taste for honey bees, which can make them a bit of a problem for beekeepers.
That aside the advice:
"Chittka advised anyone who might come into contact with the winged critters to "not to poke a stick into a nest". The hornets are fiercely territorial and can become aggressive if provoked."
Pity our government didn't take this advice about getting involved in Iraq, Syria and Libya.....
Yes, there are quite a lot of different hornet species in Asia. Luckily the giant hornet is only one of them.
That said even the smaller ones can be quite aggressive if they feel their nest is threatened.
Last week a group of Marathon runners in Japan found that out the hard way. And those were smaller hornets. Their nest was only half a meter in diameter. Giant hornet nests can easily reach a meter.
From personal experience I can say giant hornets are really something special. Already the sound they make is nothing like other wasps. They sound similar to the sound a big beetle makes during flight. But they have nothing of the clumsiness of a beetle. Occasionally one zips through our garden. Good that they don't go for sweet stuff, like European wasps. As long as they don't defend their nest and you aren't a honey bee, you should be safe. Of course knowing that doesn't make you feel any better if one is hovering in front of you. Running away does not work, standing still does not make her go away and slowly walking off takes a lot of willpower.
1. Please don't kill any of our native hornets (and generally, any black and yellow buzzy thing won't sting you if you don't take swipes at it
2. What happened to that Mosquito-killing laser turret (made cheaply from bits of scanners, cameras and DVD players) from Ted Talks?
Edit: It's the laser from a BluRay player. https://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_could_this_laser_zap_malaria/transcript?language=en
Quite, which makes the following statement seem quite bewildering.
Professor Nicola Spence, chief plant health officer at Defra, told the Beeb: "It is important to remember they pose no greater risk to human health than a bee, though we recognise the damage they can cause to honey bee colonies.
@DAM
OK, then see for yourself. Large holes, nothing like an average UK wasp sting. Looks like a bullet hole to me and yes, I've seen enough things shot over the years. If you want to split hairs, then make it an entry hole. Point is its a damn site larger than a normal wasp sting.
@AC - "It is important to remember they pose no greater risk to human health than a bee, " means that it will not kill you, but having the ability to dissolve human flesh means that :
A. It will hurt a lot more
B. It will take a lot longer to pass than a normal UK wasp sting.
Per hornet?
For a few of them out swaggering on a Friday night and looking for trouble?
For a swarm of (currently undefined Reg unit) size? If so, what are the known variations in size of a swarm compared to "normal"?
For El Reg, that's worse than the crime reporters who blindly quote police as saying the MAC-10 can fire 1,000 rounds per minute. Yes it can fire at that rate, but it cannot fire that amount in a minute unless you've a magic Hollywood magazine, Sloppy from a tech publication that should be good with basic number concepts.
Indeed per hornet. European honeybees attack one at a time and are swiftly despached. Asian honeybees surround them and cook them with their body heat as Asian honeybees can survive at higher temperatures than the hornets can.
A Euro-Asian honeybee hybrid needed here???
You can get 100 round drum magazines, but here's a test someone a ran manually loading 30 and 50 round (drum )magazines into a modified AR – 15 on full automatic. He used up most of the table full of ammunition before the barrel failed at 830 rounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSizVpfqFtw
I discovered in a football sized nest looking like one of those tacky paper lampshades, these beasties
Checked with the local farmer who confirmed that they were Frelon Asiatique, very dangerous, and to get, for about 12 euro's, a spray that shoots a poison onto the nest, with a range of about 1.5 metres.
Fired the aerosol at the nest and legged it.
Came back next day, most dead, a few pissed off survivors which were dispatched. They never returned, unlike wasps which seem to.
The bee swarm which passed in front of me by about 1 metre, ended up between the neighbours window and the closed shutter, quite interesting to go into the house and see them behind glass.
We called a local bee keeper, who got them into a hive, and were rewarded with honeycomb and a jar of honey.
Why very dangerous? As mentioned Frelon Asiatique is not more dangerous than a standard bee.
Also, it's actually a wasp..
And who are "the people round here".
The local farmers.
As for deaths ... there is only one listed.
try the scroll button.
One man, one woman, thats two
The points you are missing, are that the frelon is a hornet as opposed to a guêpe which is a wasp.
This particular frelon is not native to Europe, is a result of global trade and is fatal to the bee (abeille) population.
Depends on the department, I was informed it would be cheaper to use the spray, which is specifically designed for frelon asiatiques, as opposed to calling the pompiers.
It worked, albeit a bit scary, but I also had protective clothing and a safety person on hand, also I can run fast!!!
We already have the Hornets. They're [i]supposed[/i] to be replaced by the f-35s...
First the varroa mites & now wasps, why does Asia hate the honey bees?
And yes, we learned, after the cane toads. And Dogs, cats, pigs, goats, deer, sparrows, indian mynahs, pigeons, rabbits, calicivirus...
Haha... except that dogs, cats, pigs, goats, deer, sparrows*, mynah birds, pigeons* rabbits** all preceded cane toads - by many decades!
*Migratory birds can reach the continent on their own, we're not to blame for those!
**We didn't import the calicivirus, we invented it to try and get rid of the rabbits. It seems to have a reasonable job, considering my mate's farm has been relatively rabbit-free for the past decade or so; what few rabbits remain are readily sorted out with his .22 rimfires ...